Remembering Lee

The several outpourings of grief and memorials devoted to the unexpected passing of Alexander McQueen came to a spectacular and poignant finale Monday in London. The designer, who died on Feb. 11, was given a , a venue that many of the ceremony's participants noted would have pleased the tortured designer. McQueen was represented by several family members, and several of his devoted disciples, including Kate Moss, Naomi Campbell, Stella McCartney and Sarah Jessica Parker, who he famously dressed and escorted to the 2008 Metropolitan Museum of Art Costume Institute gala in matching tartan and tulle Scottish confections.

Most Popular

"It was a proper tribute to a wonderful man," Daphne Guinness said afterward. "He would have liked that." All of the speeches given at the memorial touched upon McQueen's depth, creativity, generosity, genius and, most importantly, his sense of humor. Longtime friend Annabelle Neilson's last remark was that she can still hear his cackling laugh every day.

But it was a performance by Bjork, wearing an ornate dress that included angel-like wings and a jeweled headpiece, that ultimately summed up the soul of a man who could command such brilliance and such darkness. From the poem "Gloomy Sunday," written by Laszlo Javor in 1936, she produced a song that summed up the poignancy and beauty when a man confronts his death. For the entire fashion industry - most of which was at the ceremony, in black, in a McQueen piece that will only be more sentimental after today - the days following his death were gloomy. But this memorial, held on a gloriously sunny London morning, ended with a lively performance of "Yes, Lord, Yes" from The London Community Gospel Choir. It was the brief respite for which so many of us were looking.